L.A. import Pizzana lives up to all the hype
Neapolitan-style pies made with modern techniques shine at this new spot
Can’t stop, won’t stop. Lately, I’ve got pizza on the brain, like half my fellow Houstonians (no, make that three quarters), and I’m fixated on hitting all the new pizzerias popping up around the city.
This week’s mecca: Pizzana, the Los-Angelesborn brainchild of chefpartner Daniele Uditi — and the winner of a Michelin Bib Gourmand, an award given to restaurants that are more affordable than Michelin star recipients. I hit their spot on the southwesternmost curve of the River Oaks Shopping Center right at 5:30 p.m., when there were still counter seats and two-tops for the taking.
Pizzana Houston is a more casual, unpretentious room than I expected, given its origin in design-conscious L.A. and its bigbucks co-founders, Candace and Charles Nelson of Sprinkles Cupcakes. A few big, brooding potted plants of no distinction carve up a space done in slate blue and charcoal gray, with sunny graphic art splashed here and there.
But you’re here for the pizza, not the room. I had to try the famous cacio e pepe pie that’s a Pizzana signature. Yes, it’s a riff on the cacio e pepe pasta that’s been all the rage during the past decade, centered on cheese and black pepper.
“It’s our most photographed pizza!” a staffer crowed as the pale yellowand-white pie landed at my elbow. Such are the times. I was dubious about the fat tubes of “Parmesan cream” perched on each slice, and their cool, soft contrast with the hot, crisp pie caught me by surprise.
It worked. The flurry of cracked black peppercorns fairly leapt in its context of melted fior di latte, the fresh stretched curd cheese, cooked together with provoloncino, fior di latte’s denser, drier cousin. The smooth, ricotta-based Parmesan cream added its own distinct note of salty savor.
All of it rode on a base of 48-hour-fermented crust with a high, singe-spotted crown and a crisp underbottom, Uditi’s modification on the classic Neapolitan style. Folks who shy from the juicy Neapolitan center sag will rejoice that Pizzana’s slices either stick straight out or sag ever so slightly. A perforated metal disk set into the pizza server keeps the underbottom crisp. You can pick up a triangle with no problem, American-style.
I’d put Pizzana’s modified Neapolitan crust up with Elro in quality terms, although I’d give a slight edge to Elro in terms of fermenty tang and that classic, collapsing central swoon I find so irresistible.
Pizzana’s Neo Margherita pie wowed me, too. Uditi flips the playbook by putting the cheese underneath, topping it with startlingly intense, tart-sweet blobs of long-simmered San Marzano tomatoes and adding swirls of equally intense basil-infused bread crumbs. All the primal flavors of the classic Margherita, delivered with sharp new technique. I’m a fan.
Smartly chosen wines by the $12-$18 thin tumbler or by the bottle suit the menu and include selections from both Italy and home-base California. A supple Fattoria Chianti really did have the soft, cooked notes of blackberry, black cherry and almond promised on the menu; and a well-structured Idlewild Rosé from Ukiah, California stood up to the Cacio e Pepe.
Dessert? A total childlike pleasure of house-made vanilla bean gelato showered with colored sprinkles and escorted by a tiny cupful of hot chocolate sauce. It was a nice touch of whimsy in a place that’s deeply serious about its pizzas.
Pizzana, 2029 W. Gray, 713-565-5500. Lunch and dinner daily.